Use modern features like SURF in camera tracking?
Blender currently uses a KLT-Tracker (Kanade–Lucas–Tomasi) which is documented here .

While algorithms like SIFT and SURF are patented, ORB (Oriented Brief) could be an alternative (BSD licensed) it was developed in 2011 and is already implemented in openCV


ORB


I have no idea whether there are plans to use other algorithms in Blender.